How to boost your exam score

PETA RASDIEN

September 24, 2014

The secret to success for students undergoing the WACE exams this year will be ensuring not only that they have they studied hard but also that they have primed their body and mind to function at their best.

Linda Woodrow, Year 11 and 12 ATAR co-ordinator at Australind Senior High School, estimated getting it right could deliver a benefit in the order of 10 Australian Tertiary Admission Rank points and make the difference between getting into your preferred course at university, or not.

“If they can get the balance right I think it has a tremendous impact on their ability to achieve — it helps them go the distance,” she said.

Good nutrition, exercise, sleep and a well-mapped timetable that allowed for about 15-18 hours a week of study, over and above school, were all important for achieving the best result.

“It really is a long, intense year . . . so to have a balance gives them the ability to go through and sustain the whole year,” Ms Woodrow said.

“I’ve seen it in some of our students who did really well last year, they were the students who were balanced but they also had good, level-headed support from their parents as well and that’s something you just can’t buy.”

Prioritising their time was also key. One of the biggest obstacles for some was part-time work.

Many students studying for the WACE exams worked part time, on average eight to 10 hours a week. However, some did more than 20 hours, Ms Woodrow said.

“They are not able to get their homework done, without even committing themselves to being able to do any study, that’s probably the biggest bugbear we have here at Australind,” she said.

“If we feel that part-time work is interfering in the student’s ability to achieve their potential we do not hesitate to bring parents in and we do have a discussion.

“Often we find that our very best students — the ones who will achieve 90 plus — they have already made the decision not to work in their Year 12 year.”While sport, too, could make demands on a student’s time it was encouraged.

“We really like the students to play sport, it just gives them that feel-good factor that they really need to have after sitting down all day in school,” Ms Woodrow said.

“The expectation is three hours’ homework and study in the evening so we are looking at sitting for eight to nine hours a day and so sport is something we really encourage.”

Parents were integral to a student’s success, although that did not mean they needed to “molly- coddle” their children.

By Year 12 students should be mostly independent, however, parents should still be on hand to offer guidance. Parents providing too much concern could have a negative impact.

“Students who are very, very anxious are often those who have not had the opportunity to make mistakes and be independent,” Ms Woodrow said.

“Usually what I get my students to try to understand — I say ‘It’s only two more months’. For students who are really stressed I get them to tick it off day by day. It’s only a short period of your life but it is so incredibly important to the rest of your life.”

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